Ultimate Shows Web2Print Products at drupa

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Press release from the issuing company

Brussels, March 19, 2008 -- Ultimate Technographics, celebrating 20 years of innovation at DRUPA, is launching new ways of automating digital print production from web submission, through optimized printing, to finished product tagged for delivery to the customer. We will be demonstrating how we put the '2' in web2print all the way to finishing via various types of connectivity and open workflows. In this new context, Web2Print is extended to include grouping of jobs for best print optimization and automation of finishing for best quality.

Manufacturing flow now completely automated
Ultimate will be demonstrating with several partners in various workflow areas how the prepress production for digital print can be driven through XML job ticketing to obtain a complete hands-off manufacturing flow. This goes beyond limited passing of information to actually convert the job intent and instructions for a complete job manufacturing process that is optimized for digital printing. Application realization will target the growing digital book market, booklet personalization, photo albums, calendars, greeting and business cards.

It is all about finishing first!
Workflow is about finishing first. Ultimate will be demonstrating not only the automated printing of these kinds of jobs, but also will be showing the complete automated finishing of these jobs on different types of finishing and bindery equipment. Ultimate will be demonstrating with finishing equipment partners this automated link with JDF finishing instructions and barcodes. These products will be folded, cut, creased, slit and bound with minimal or no human intervention.

Keeping track of digital paper
Ultimate will also be showing how to keep track of printed paper in a digital world allowing the grouping of various orders of similar types of jobs together in order to increase productivity and profits. This new model of web2print productivity is now realizable with our new Impostrip software tools designed to carry critical information for the post finishing steps that is packaging and delivery.

From offset to digital-bridging the gap
Ultimate invented imposition software 20 years ago, and today Ultimate is going beyond imposition to true automated production of complete products. "20 years ago we put the stripper, with his knives, tape and film into the computer," explains David Watson, founder of Ultimate, "but now we are moving beyond replacing the stripper's knife with a mouse. Workflows for offset printing are efficient to produce one plate at a time, but are inefficient in
Web2print where we have to produce multiple jobs at a time and together in an efficient and profitable way."

XML workflow automation
Ultimate will be launching the new Impostrip XML Director, a module designed to connect imposition flows directly with web2print software and workflow solutions eliminating the need for job manipulation and possible configuration mistakes. Impostrip Director provides a single hot folder workflow smart enough to redirect files to the appropriate production folder that will apply all imposition preferences including special print and finishing information, based on the instructions of the XML job ticket. The XML Director will be shown working with Xerox FreeFlow Process Manager, Gradual Switch, IPLabs PhotoGenie, DigiLabs and others. Ultimate will be showing new versions of Impostrip On-Demand 6.0, Impostrip Book Stacker 2.0, and Impostrip Card Stacker 2.0 that are driven through the Impostrip XML Director.

Automation at the Crossroads
Ultimate and Gradual will be showing a new level of connectivity using Impostrip SWITCH Configurator designed to automatically and dynamically impose any type of jobs for any bindery, on the fly. Very simple and yet powerful, the Impostrip configurator from Switch allows any jobs dropped into pre-configured SWITCH workflows to follow its course to the press and finishing equipment. The greatest advantage resides in Impostrip ability to impose various size and lengths jobs using the same dynamic templates. This configurator can drive the full Impostrip family of products and its finishing and tracking modules, depending of the customer's needs.

Finishing JDF
The weakest component of implementing JDF workflows has been the connection to post press finishing equipment. This connection is particularly important in digital printing where manual set-ups of finishing equipment can jeopardize any profit margin in short run jobs. Impostrip will be shown with the widest support for JDF finishing instructions to be used by finishing equipment for folding, cutting, creasing, slitting, stapling, gathering and other functions.

Partners Finish First
Ultimate will be demonstrating application solutions at DRUPA with its partners, Duplo, IBM-Ricoh Infoprint Solutions and others to be announced in April.

The complete range of Ultimate products will be demonstrated in Ultimate stand Hall 9/A61. These include products for hybrid digital and offset printing like Impostrip 8.5, Impostrip Repurposing and Proof, Impostrip Page Pairing for newspaper printing; and Ink Ready 2.0 for ink key presetting.

Absolutely Imposing
DRUPA will also see Ultimate's world wide launch of the first low cost professional imposition plug-in for Adobe Acrobat. This is a product for small Commercial offset and digital printers who want the low cost of a plug-in, but who also want the simple, but powerful product that does imposition of PDF without compromises.